Wedding Bells
by ProDLnEC aka NLcsimiamifanatic
Summary: Read & Enjoy!


_What to do when you have writer's block on all your stories? :) Write a mini-fic connected to one of them and post it separately! __**ONE-SHOT**_.

_Enjoy!_

_**Wedding Bells**_

_Everyone's point of view during the couple's big day. Rated "M" for safety (for the mile high club)!_

He waited in the front of the room, guests wondering up to shake his hand and congratulate him. Mac couldn't remember having felt this way in his entire life.

Even when he married Claire Conrad.

He had let her go and rest in peace.

A ray of sunshine in the form of a woman ironically named Hope had come into his life a year and a half ago, and bought him out of his state of solely existing and showed him what it was like to _live_ and feel genuine happiness once again. Today was the start of a brand new life for Mac Taylor. In less than twenty minutes he wouldn't no longer be considered a widower but again someone's husband. Mac felt exhilarated, excited and just a bit nervous.

When she first saw Mac Taylor, Hope had to admit she _wanted_ him, in more than one way. She couldn't say she was "burned" by love before but she was highly sceptical of the term "true love" just because of the way society was nowadays. But today, as she waited in the small room next to where family and friends, and her groom were, she knew she had indeed found "true love." She couldn't see living her life without Mac Taylor. She hadn't expected to find a man like him, just the way she hadn't believed in a "forever" relationship.

Mac had proven her wrong on both accounts.

The interfaith minister officiating the ceremony had visited her briefly moments ago, asking her if she had any doubts about the marriage. He had just spoken to the groom and asked him the same thing.

Neither groom or bride felt a hint of doubt.

The minister said the ceremony would begin shortly and left.

At the altar Hope smiled. Seeing Mac as emotional as she was, was sweet. Mac didn't hide his feelings from her but even she seldom saw him become this emotional. Mac choked up and tears ran his cheeks when he saw his bride. But he wasn't embarrassed. The fact that _she_ could bring this about in him caused more tears to come to her eyes.

His bride smiled at him, as the two joined hands. Hope squeezed Mac's hand, herself getting as emotional. Both bride and groom's hands trembled during the exchange of rings. The shaking disappeared as the couple sealed the vows with a kiss. The smiles both had worn since Hope was at the top of the aisle hadn't faded one bit. The photographer couldn't remember a wedding where telling the new couple to 'smile' was so unnecessary. All couples he photographed looked happy on their big day but there was something about these two that radiated happiness times a million.

* * *

"They look so happy," Lindsay Messer said to her husband as the group at the table as they watched the new Mr. And Mrs. Taylor boogy on the dance floor to "_Sugar, sugar_" by the Archies. "Mac so deserves this."

"That's for sure," Danny replied.

The team had got to know Hope's family during the past few days. Nathan Conway, his wife, Alicia and their sons Hunter and Blake were great people.

Then there was their daughter and sister Bella.

She was a piece of work to put it mildly. A month ago the bride had "demoted" her only sister from the maid of honor to bridesmaid. She was causing so much drama, acting as if the day were about _her_, the other three wondered how Bella wasn't nixed from bridal party all together. Lindsay Messer had commented to the bride she didn't know how she hadn't murdered the other woman yet. Hope had replied not to encourage her; she was getting close to that point. The sister of the bride was on her version of her best behavior all during the wedding, photos and most of the reception, thanks to threats from their mother.

Now, she was totally drunk.

Not that there weren't other guests who were the same but Bella Conway was a whole new definition of obnoxious drunk. The reception was barely started and she was so inebriated she could barely stand up. She didn't even get see the new couple's first dance. Blake came to the rescue, taking Bella to her room where the young woman promptly passed out on the bed. Most of the guests, and most importantly the happy couple didn't even notice that Bella was removed from the room. When Nathan told his daughter that Blake had taken drunk Bella upstairs and would be back downstairs momentarily, Hope had just smiled and shrugged. She was actually _glad_ Bella were there and frankly out of the way from causing trouble. Not that _anything _was going to ruin this day for her.

Sid Hammerback and Sheldon Hawkes sat at the same table at the Messers and Flacks. Both men knew Mac Taylor before September 11, 2001. Mac was indeed intensely in love with Claire Conrad-Taylor and the two had had a happy life together, Sid and Sheldon had seen the effects of her death on Mac—they saw how it had caused him to shut down. For ten years except Wednesday nights he played bass guitar at _Cozy's _Nightclub, Mac's work was his life. He did have a few brief romantic relationships with women he met through work but none of these resembled his marriage to Claire or now, his marriage to Hope. Even those relationships were different to the observation of the two men. Mac and Hope had a bond that Sid believed that came from the fact that the young woman had bought him out of the dark patch he had been in for so long. Hope had revived their friend emotionally, bringing him back to the person he was before the day that forever changed the world. The team was grateful to her for that. The couple were oblivious to their friends watching and conversing about them. They had barely taken their eyes off each other since the ceremony.

When their youngest child told them that she knew she found the love of her life in a forty-something year old man, Nathan and Alicia were sceptical.

Until they met the man Hope couldn't stop talking about.

He was "A1 husband material," to quote Alicia. He treated their daughter with love and respect. Though neither was sure why they were surprised because Hope was raised to expect anything less—of course this was a two-way street—she had to _give_ the same treatment to receive it. The older couple knew Hope and Mac had a wonderful future together.

Now if they would hurry up and have those babies.

"You look so amazing," Mac whispered to his wife as they danced to "_When You Say Nothing at All"_ by Roan Keating. That had been played earlier for their first dance as husband and wife. The guests were starting to thin out. The party would end in another hour.

Hope smiled.

"So do you. But I'm looking forward to getting out of this dress."

The bride was already out of her heels.

"Not as much I'm looking forward to helping you out of it," Mac whispered in her ear, grinning.

The Flacks and the Messers had noticed this intimate interaction.

"We know what that was about," Don said, watching Hope giggle.

Hope wanted her _husband_ all to herself now and minus the suit. She was thrilled to finally get that as Mac swept her up to carry her over the threshold. She giggled. She had teased him about it in the ride up in the elevator to the honeymoon suite. She hadn't thought he would actually do it. Metaphorically, Hope had done so for him on their first date so why shouldn't he literally do so as they began their wedding night?

The bride's custom gown and groom's suit were on the floor in minutes. It had been insinuated by people her age that Hope was "giving herself the short end of the stick" in the bedroom department by marrying a man who was over forty. She was too much of a lady to tell such intimate and private details—and just maybe she had lucked out and got a rare specimen with Mac Taylor—or it could have been the adage of "men in uniform," of which Mac had two underneath his belt was true. Whichever one, Mac knew how to satisfy in the bedroom. Not much in the way of sleep went on in the room that night. That came around five a.m. and lasted till eight a.m.. The two showered together before heading downstairs for breakfast with Hope's parents and brothers. Mr. And Mrs. Taylor had a flight reservation to South Carolina at noon. It was a safe bet that Bella was either still passed out or she had now had moved on to puking her guts up. Only for the fact the newlyweds had to get to JFK International by eleven for check-in and to catch their flight to Myrtle Beach, the two would have gone straight from the shower back to bed.

"You and I just might join the mile high club, _ ,_" Mac murmured, kissing her before they left their suite.

_Mrs. Taylor_.

These words were like music to Hope.

She hadn't thought twice about taking the name Taylor, over Conway-Taylor. She didn't think of it as "losing" any part of her identity. A grin crossed her face as she wrote this on the hotel registry when she and Mac arrived at their South Carolina accommodations, another Marriot Court Hotel. She hadn't joined the "mile high club"—maybe they would on the flight home. Both she and Mac had both fallen asleep before the plane was off the ground.


End file.
